Paleoanthropologists shook up the world
of early human research when they determined
that a homo sapiens skull from Morocco
is 300,000 years old.
That’s a 100,000 years older than any past find.
Biologists made a big advance in editing DNA and RNA.
Developing techniques to transform
one nucleotide base into another—at a precise point.
A team in China used a version of the technique
to correct a point mutation in a human embryo.
A new FDA approved drug reflects a long awaited shift
from treating cancers based on their origins
to one grounded in tumor biology.
The drug is designed to treat advanced
solid tumors that have a specific genetic defect—
no matter where in the body the cancer arose.
This year biologists posted a record number
of preprints:
papers that have not yet been peer reviewed.
Biology appears to be following physics
where preprints have changed the culture
of communicating results.
Scientists collected the oldest ice core ever.
It’s 2.7 million years old and came from
a desolate region of Antarctica.
It shatters the record by 1.7 million years.
Bubbles trapped in the ice might reveal
greenhouse gas levels
at the start of the ice age.
Physicists used a detector the size of a milk jug
to observe neutrinos pinging off atomic nuclei
in a way never seen before.
The achievement confirms a 40 year old prediction
and it opens the way for portable detectors
that can spot these elusive particles.
Gene researchers had a dramatic success
with a new treatment for a neuromuscular disease.
Usually it kills infants.
But the small trial demonstrated
the power of a new way of ferrying
genetic cargo across the blood-brain barrier.
Wildlife scientists identified a new species of orangutan
on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
It’s the first great ape species to be discovered
since the Bonobo.
But with just 800 individuals, this species is imperiled.
It’s been a banner year for cryo-electron microscopy.
It’s a technique that allows scientists to determine
the structure of complex molecules as they interact.
The arrival of new computer software is providing
fresh insights into many of life’s key molecules.
And the tools are fast reshaping the field
of structural biology.
And now the breakthrough of the year.
For the first time, astronomers were able to
fully observe the collision of two neutron stars.
One of the most violent events in the cosmos.
First, they spotted gravitational waves—ripples in space-time—
Then they trained multiple telescopes on their source.
to witness a spectacular burst of radiation
that contained answers s to some long-standing
cosmic mysteries and opening a new era in astronomy.